A study of e-business technology transfer via foreign direct investment in the Ghanaian construction industry

The literature relating to construction in implemented and developing countries indicates that key improvements in construction work delivery and better performance could be achieved through ICT elements and e-business. In view of the improvement of Ghana’s economy, a key role of Ghana’s Government is to improve the construction industry to enable it meet the government’s agenda for delivering economic and strategic infrastructure that meets Ghana’s middle-income status. This is of particular significance to the Ghanaian construction industry; however, local construction firms lack the technological capacity and capability to work in an integrated environment that is supported by e-business technology. These limitations can be overcome if local firms are encouraged to take advantage through collaboration in view of the increased participation in the construction industry by large foreign firms who employ qualified personnel and have the capacity to deploy e-business and appreciate it in their operations. Notably, these foreign construction firms are taking advantage of the good investment climate in Ghana and are utilising Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a mode of entry. However, the issues pertaining to detailed assessments of how these foreign firms help to improve skills and technological capacity and capability of local firms in line with the investment laws have not been adequately investigated. Assessing the capacity and capability requirements of the local firms can provide the baseline for technology transfer from foreign firms to their local counterparts, moreover, this has been subjected to a very limited academic research in some cases, none at all. This research seeks to identify the fundamental requirements for e-business technology transfer to the Ghanaian construction industry for improving procurement and project management processes through an in-depth exploration of the issues identified. This research is premised on interpretivist research philosophy and utilises FDI as a medium of e-business technology transfer to the Ghanaian construction industry. Therefore, the case study research strategy was adopted in conducting this research. Although positioned within interpretivist philosophical stance, a mixed method research approach consisting of a questionnaire survey of local firms within the Ghanaian construction industry to explore the technological capacity of local firms as a precursor to e-business technology transfer and semi-structured interviews of case study foreign and local firms were employed to investigate the research questions. The findings of the questionnaire survey demonstrated that the capacity of the local firms operating in the Ghanaian construction industry is quite low coupled with limited knowledge about e-business. Additionally, the case study revealed barriers such as low ICT skills and technical skills and inadequate national ICT infrastructure to support the deployment of e-business. Also, the case study revealed that e-business can bring about improved communication, reduction in postage and travel cost and online access to tender documents. What is more, the in-depth case study revealed key fundamental elements for e-business technology transfer, namely: capacity and capability development; legal/security systems and ICT/Internet infrastructure. A conceptual framework was then developed representing the fundamental elements of e-business technology transfer informed by the findings of the research. The research provided an original contribution to the development of e-business capability within local firms in the Ghanaian construction industry.